Apr 28, 2011

Rice, black beans, tomatoes, scallions, cilantro and lime juice, every bite of this colorful side dish will feel like one big fiesta in your mouth! Use leftover rice and this side dish comes together in minutes.

I think my love of rice is innate having a Hispanic mother. This dish started as the filling for a vegetarian stuffed pepper recipe I dreamed up in my head, but when I put all the stuffing ingredients together all I kept thinking was... Wow this would be wonderful as is, or with some Chicken Ropa Vieja and melted cheese on top, or as a big burrito bowl topped with Sweet Barbacoa Pork or Barbacoa Beef or Pork Carnitas! You see excited a bowl of rice can make me!

So I decided to make this a two part recipe. Today I will post this as a side dish and let you decide how you want to eat it. Tomorrow stuffed peppers!!

There is always leftover rice in my house, my kids love it and leftovers make great lunches mixed with whatever we had for dinner the night before. If you don't have any cooked rice you can cook about 1 cup rice with salt and 2 cups of water to make enough rice for this. I heated the corn and the beans in the microwave a few seconds to make sure everything was hot before I served it. My family fights me on brown rice so I always make white, but brown rice would be wonderful as well.

Yeah, I would DEFINITELY make this with chicken. Kinda like going to Chipotle, but waaay cheaper. And my husband is not a fan of vegetarian recipes. Whenever I find one on here that is veggie, he insists I add meat. This might be dinner tonight.

Looks great, can't wait for the stuffed peppers. I LOVE your site! Everything I have made so far has been fantastic. Your pictures are amazing too. Who knew eating "skinny" could taste so good! :) Thank you for making my weight loss journey a more enjoyable one.

This recipe bears so much resemblance to a Greek dish called Garbanzo. The beans are cooked separately but the resulting dish is just like the fiesta lime rice. Then also in the South, orange zest may be more likely as a substitute to the lime juice. Last year, a similar recipe was presented at the Greek Food Festival but it missed one ingredient - cooked corn. Aside these exceptions, this meal is very familiar with us.

Oh, man -- this is wonderful!, and so pretty, too! My husband said several times that this is a keeper (though I haven't made one of your recipes yet that's not a keeper). I will be making this simple recipe often!

and I forgot to mention, I ran out of fresh tomatoes so I used a little fire roasted canned and I forgot to get scallions so I used a little less red onion. Still was great :) love that cilantro and lime flavor!

Gina - I've made several recipes from your website and have loved them all. Made this this past weekend, and at my boyfriend's suggestion added some small pieces of pineapple to the mix. It was tasty and gave it an interesting new flavor! Keep up the great recipes, you make trying WW so much easier :o)

Gina thank you so much for this amazing recipe! I made it tonight along with your barbacoa pork recipe and was pretty sure I was in heaven! That is the best meal I have eaten in months I swear! Even my husband loved it (and he's not a huge mexican food fan, unlike me!) This is a simple and beautiful recipe that I think I will be making a lot of in the future! Thank you again for all your hard work in coming up with these fabulous recipes!

I didn't post because I lost count so my nutritional info would have been off but cut the peppers in half and scoop out seeds. Fill each half with rice and I mixed a little cheese in there too. Add a 1/4 cup water to bottom of baking dish.Cover tight with foil and bake at 400 about 35 minutes, remove foil and add more cheese and bake another 3 minutes until it melts.

Thanks for the stuffed peppers recipe, I'll definitely give it a try. Just made your eggplant parm tonight and my husband and me loved it. Everything I've made from your site has been excellent and I tell everybody I know about it. Thanks again!

I'm a SkinnyTaste rookie, but found the blog in time for Cinco de Mayo. Both the steak fajitas and this fiesta rice made our dinner menu. I substituted quinoa for the rice, since I already had it made, and used a can of Rotel (drained) in place of diced tomatoes. It was delish! Looking forward to trying more great recipes here.

I made this for Cinco de Mayo dinner with shrimp ceviche tacos. It was great! My mother and husband liked it so much that we made it again a couple of days later. Thanks, Gina. i have bookmarked many of your recipes to try. Keep up the good work.

I have to admite I made a 'cheater' version of this - I put the rice, black beans, and corn - added some homemade pico de gallo for the rest - results? FABULOUS! Can't wait to try this maybe with brown rice?

made this last night as a side dish - so refreshing! much more flavorful that bland old white rice. pretty to look at, wonderful to taste! definitely making this a staple side dish at our house. had some leftovers with chicken for lunch - even better the next day! gina, you're my hero!

I made this last night as a side dish to steak fajitas. I left out the tomato and used brown rice. It was sooooo good! My husband put it in his fajita and said that it was the best he'd ever had! I'm not a fan of cilantro, and I even loved it! It made enough to feed 4 people, easy. My husband was so happy that there was enough leftover to eat for lunch today! I am adding this to my recipe book right now!

Made this tonight with your "Garlic-Lime Pork Chops"....DELICIOUS and EASY!! I'm terrible when it comes to creativity in the kitchen...I'm so happy I've stumbled upon your website!! Thanks for the idea and can't wait to try MANY more of your recipes!! :)

A fiesta in my mouth!! :) Thanks for another great recipe, Gina. We enjoyed this one very much with your delicious shrimp avocado salad. Unfortunately, I'm one of those rice-impaired who end up with rice that's too mushy or somehow crunchy. Any tips?

Yes, I make perfect white rice. 1 cup rice, 2 cups water and salt in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil uncovered and simmer on medium until almost all the water is gone. The water will be just skimming the top of the rice.. then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook 15 minutes without lifting the lid. Shut heat off and keep covered another 5 minutes. The steam will cook the rice so don't lift the lid. Then fluff with a fork.

Sounds yummy! But the calories seem too low on your nutrition facts? A half cup of white rice alone has almost 120. Could be wrong but it just seems off. Will be trying it anyway! Love mexican flavors!

Yummy! Fixed this for dinner as a side with pork loin and your Colombian Aji Picante! Heaven on earth! I just discovered your website today, and already I know I will be feasting here often! Thanks for sharing your gift!

I fixed this and your Grilled Pollo Sabroso. It was delicious. I served it over spinach/ mandarin orange salad the next day and that was yummy,too. I will definitely fix this again. Marked your site as a favorite :-)

Loved this the first time I made it. Super good the next day as a cold salad. Tonight I'm making it again and when I grabbed the black beans from the pantry I decided to grab the kidney beans and chickpeas as well. It looks yummy and will give us even more leftovers this time!

Thanks to your recipes, I have been able to sneak healthy dishes in on my husband. Served this the other night with a grilled skirt steak taco and roasted tomato salsa. We LOVED this rice dish! I did not want to send the leftovers in my husbands lunch today =)

Hello Gina - I love your recipes. Especially the PR recipes! I have a question- the calorie count on for this recipe is 152.8 for one cup...however I find other rice calorie counts as much higher. Can you explain this to me? Being PR I love rice but really wonder about the calorie count.

I just made this and its a wonderful side dish. I used finely diced red onions instead of scallions and I used the juice from a whole lime. I think it will go nicely with tilapia or grilled chicken, yummy!

I made this last week, and I think it's very good. I used brown rice and since I didn't have any jalapenos in hand, I added a few bird chilis to spice it up a notch. What I really like about this dish is that it's so colorful, it's a joy to eat it even as leftovers. Thanks!

This is so good! I didn't have a tomato so I used a can of Rotel drained and it was still great. I served it with the Pollo Sabroso and was the perfect lunch. Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes!

This rice is so delicious!!! Even my husband loves it, and he's not big on rice. Of course, I did add shredded cheddar on top of his since he is not on WW. I served it with HG's nacho-rific stuffed chicken, and it was an awesome meal.

Some ladies at my WW meeting recommended this site and I'm really looking forward to trying your recipes! I'm actually terrified of the kitchen but a lot of your recipes seem beginner-friendly.

Also I really appreciate when you put serving size - so many WW recipes tell you the number of servings, but it's not always practical to portion out servings ahead of time. Much easier to grab a measuring spoon. Kudos!

Just made this tonight and my husband and I both really liked it. I made the recipe just as written, tho probably put in more cilantro and green onions along with the juice of a whole lime. Served it with a chuck roast I had cooked in the crockpot all day. Delicious and really colorful as well.

Comes together faster than you can imagine! I ended up using jasmine rice and it worked out. Since I was baking the Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken, I combined the corn + black beans with some chili powder, black pepper and salt and put it in the oven for 10m or so prior to adding them into the rice. So good!

I was really bummed because I forgot to buy cilantro. I made it anyway and I am glad that I did! I made it with brown rice and even without the cilantro, it was very yummy. I will make it again with the cilantro, I think that will make it even yummier!

This is such a terrific recipe. I've made it at least twice already and I made it again today as a side dish to pork tacos. I'll use the leftovers in chicken wraps and just as a snack. YUM. Thank you so much! *I omit the tomatoes because, well, yucky. And I use the corn with diced peppers in it and black beans in a can with lime and jalapeno.

This is a very good recipe. I made it with the pork carnita's! I substituted the brown rice with Quinoa cooked in chicken broth. Great flavor. I could have made a meal on that alone. Very good in a tortilla with the pork!

I made this last night with the intention of making a tomato based sauce for the chicken, however, hubby decided to make a red curry with coconut cream instead. I made the rice, it paired well with the red curry. I had leftovers this morning so I threw some egg whites in with it and that was my breakfast. I am trying your asian drumsticks tonight. Great Recipe :)

Made this tonight with grilled chicken! ..made the oatmeal banana nut cookies last night.. the chicken potpie soup the night before.. you get the picture :) They are all DELICIOUS! If only I got paid for the hours I spent looking through your recipes ;)

Delicious!!! I made with ingredients on hand. Wild rice already cooked in the fridge, no black beans used red kidney, cherry tomatoes halved and half an avocado cause I love 'em. This will be a regular for me.

I just tried this tonight, and keep in mind that I have such a hard time cooking meals for myself. I'm one year out of college and live alone so making dinner I have to look for things I can cook and save or tiny meals that won't go bad. I got the best sense of accomplishment for making this rice with grilled chicken, and some extra for the rest of the week. It was delicious and you really jazzed me up about cooking something healthy, homemade, and natural. Thank you!!

This has definitely been one of the favorites of all your recipes I have made. My husband and son just raved and raved about it--I did add chicken to make it a main meal and also made the rice. They actually made huge burritos with it and claimed it tasted a lot like Chipotle's burritos (and they looove Chipotle).Thank you for all your hard work! I always mention your blog when I go to different WW meetings and almost always have people come back and thank me for steering them to you.

I do not post comments very often, but this was way deserving of a post! I made this with the Barbacoa Beef (I put the beef in the crockpot and it came out perfect) and it was a HUGE hit in my home. This dish was so flavorful and filling. Thank you for sharing your recipes and thank you for giving us great tasting healthy options!

Gina, This was really awesome, and I topped it with crock pot pork, a little cheese and sour cream. Even better than Chipotle (hard to believe)! I did use brown rice, it was all I had, frozen corn rather than canned. Still it was really good, and I don't think I'll be able to go back to ordinary burritos again!

I think the recipe was beautiful and tasty. Also I love black beans, so it is always great to eat those. Beans are topic not covered often, it is good to see them discussed here. I dont know if this information would be helpful, but I discussed them in recent blog post. Hope the information is useful.Please let me know your thoughts.UrbanHealthyChick.wordpress.com

I thought I would finally comment on this recipe! I've been making it regularly since you posted it and we still love having it! I'm actually making it tonight :-). Our family isn't big on tomatoes so I leave them out and add in chopped red onion. We're vegans so I serve this as the meal and top with chopped romaine lettuce. Huge hit around here just like so many of your recipes!

I just made this with your buffalo chicken wings, oh my God, this is delicious and I don't even care for rice that much, I used Jasmine! Thank you so much for all your recipes, can't wait to get your cookbook!!!!

I made this and added three cubes of fresh sofrito to the rice while it was cooking.. My Family Loved it! Thank You so much for creating these healthier recipes that are Family friendly. I don't know what I would do without you!

I made this tonight - and it's amazing! I can't read, and added the juice of a whole lime and not just a tablespoon.....so to off set the sour, I added some lime infused evoo, coconut white balsamic and a pinch of sugar.

Looks great! I haven't tried it yet; I was wondering how long it will last in the fridge? It would be great if I could make up a big batch to last me a few days or longer! I work and study so I don't get much spare time.